The 4th Gibtelecom Masters took place in the Hotel Caleta in Gibraltar from 24 January to 2 February. First contested in 2003, this has quickly risen to become the strongest annual anglophone Open on the planet and this year's event continued the tradition in some style, attracting a total entry of about 300 from 32 different countries. Of these, 140 odd played in the Masters itself which was fearsomely strong at the top with two 2,700 plus players, Alexei Shirov and Vladimir Akopian and a further 11 in the 2600s.

Moreover, there was an extremely strong contingent of women players including five of the current top 15, two world champions, the present incumbent Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria) and Zhu Chen (China) among them. The pairing system in Gibraltar normally pits the top half of a score group against the bottom. However in the first three rounds this is accelerated in quarters (first v second and third v fourth) and the effect of this is very quickly to winnow down the number of players on a perfect score. Indeed, after three rounds nobody had 3/3 though 18 were on 2.5.

I was one of these and continued my good early form with successive victories against top 100 players (sadly I can't remember the last time this happened): Israeli Emil Sutovsky and then Mikhail Gurevich (now Turkey). This left me first equal with Kiril Georgiev (Bulgaria) and I drew with him in round six to retain the joint lead together with Viktor Bologan (Moldavia). However, thereafter our paths diverged sharply: Georgiev continued his terrific run beating Bologan, Akopian and Sergei Volkov to surge to 8/9 before a last round draw with Sutovsky to wrap up clear first. Meanwhile I wilted losing to Zoltan Gyimesi (Hungary) and the top seed Shirov in the final round to end up 24th equal on 6/10 - mildly vexing though I did take home a lot of rating points.

Georgiev's 8.5/10 put him a whole point clear of Sutovsky and Nigel Short, who played several of the women, labouring rather in the first half but then accelerating impressively towards the end with victories in the final two rounds against Victor Korchnoi and then Mohamad Al Modiaki from Qatar - the husband of Zhu Chen whom he'd defeated three rounds earlier.

A further seven players were half a point further back on 7/10: Akopian, Alexander Areshchenko and Zahar Efimenko (both Ukraine),Gurevich, Gyimesi, Shirov and Volkov; and 13 made 6.5 including Stefanova, Zhu Chen and Natalia Zhukova (Ukraine) who shared the women's prize: the not inconsiderable sum of £3,000 in total.

Reflecting its strength, Gibraltar already has an excellent prize fund of about £30,000 and at the closing ceremony, the CEO of Gibtelecom, Tim Bristow, made the very welcome announcement that it is to be increased considerably next year - with the special women's prizes in particular being ramped up to £10,000 which should make for an even stronger women's contingent.

There is also a handsome Best Game prize of £1,000. As in previous years, Stuart Conquest had done daily commentary with a live webcast, and it was his remit to decide this. From an excellent entry he chose this splendidly original offering.

Zahar Efimenko v Julen Arizmendi

Gibraltar 2006 (round 6)

English Opening

1 c4 e5 2 Nc3 Nf6 3 Nf3 Nc6 4 d4

Thousands of games have been played over the years up to this position but Arizmendi's reply is comparatively rare (normally they capture 4...exd4) and after just a couple more moves they were already on virgin territory.

4...e4 5 Ng5 h6

The idea of this is that if 6 Ngxe4 Nxe4 7 Nxe4 Qh4 when the most rational response is to return the pawn immediately with 8 Nc3 Qxd4 which is quite playable for White if rather dull. Instead 8 Qd3 is much more challenging though after 8...d5 9 cxd5 Nb4 10 Qb1 Bf5 11 Nd6+ Bxd6! 12 Qxf5 g6 13 Qb1 Qxd4 Black has a big lead in development.

Although Efimenko is already the world number 34 he's also just twenty and was undoubtedly taken completely by surprise. His choice is just about playable but the first line above was much safer.

6 d5?! hxg5 7 dxc6 g4! 8 cxb7

Not a very happy move since it expedites Black's development. Instead I wanted to play 8 Bg5 bxc6 9 Qd4 (but not 9 Nxe4?? Nxe4 10 Bxd8 Bb4+).However Black can cut across this with 8 Bg5 Rh5! with a strong initiative.

12 Qd4!? A big concession surrendering the black squares after which Black will always have good compensation. On the other hand this way White at least gets developed while if instead 12 Bg1 Bd6 13 Qd3 he keeps all the booty for the moment but it's very scary.

12...Nxe3 13 Qxe3+ Be7 14 Qd3 Rb8

To discourage White going long and also preparing to hit b2.

15 e4 Bc6 16 Be2!?

Returning a pawn to get castled - a very human reaction though since he now has only one extra pawn and a rather rotten position I guess that something more heroic like 16 b3!? or 16 0-0-0 might have been better.

16...Rxb2 17 0-0 Bc5+ 18 Kh1 Qg5

With the none too subtle threat of 19...Rxh2+.

19 Rf4 Bd6 20 Rg4?

Losing on the spot. However if 20 Rf3 Be5 Black has more than enough for a single pawn and while 20 Raf1 Bxf4 21 gxf4 Qh4 22 h3 isn't immediately fatal - if then 22...f5 23 Bf3! defends for the moment - it's certainly not especially good.